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THE 

ZEEBRUGGE AFFAIR 

BY 

KEBLE HOWARD 

(J. KEBLE BELL, 2ND LIEUT. R.A.F.) 

WITH THE 
BRITISH OFFICIAL NARRATIVES OF THE 
OPERATIONS AT ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND 

Exclusive and Official Photographs 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



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GIFT 
W. MACMESLE DSXOW 

«V 20 J818 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. What Zeebrugge and Ostend Mean 

II. Captain Carpenter in his Attic 

III. How THE Plans were Laid . 

IV. The Great Fight 

V. A Museum in a Trunk . 

VI. On Board H.M.S. Vindictive . 

VII. The Man who Felt Frightened 

VIII. What the Marines told the Huns 

IX. I Hear They Want More . . . 



PAGE 

7 
II 

14 
19 
26 

30 
33 
37 
40 



BRITISH ADMIRALTY OFFICIAL NARRATIVES: 

Zeebrugge and Ostend — First Attack . 43 
Ostend — Second Attack 55 




CHAPTER I 



What Zeebrugge and Ostend Mean 

LET me, first of all, try to tell you the story of 
Zeebrugge as I extracted it, not v;ithout diffi- 
culty, from several of the leading spirits of that enter- 
prise. This is no technical story. Elsewhere in this 
little volume you will find the official narrative issued 
by the Admiralty to the Press, and that contains, as 
all good official documents do, names, ranks, dates, 
times, and movements. 

I lay claim to no such precision. It is my proud 
yet humble task to bring you face to face, if I can, 
with the men who went out to greet what they re- 
garded as certain deatJi — bear that in mind — in order 
to stop, in some measure, the German submarine men- 
ace, and to prove yet once again to all the world that 

7 



8 The Zeebrugge Affair 

the British Navy is the same in spirit as it was in the 
days of Nelson and far down the ages. 

These men went out on the eve of St. George's Day, 
19 1 8, to do those two things — the one utiHtarian, the 
other romantic. They went out to block the Bruges 
Canal at Zeebrugge — to stop that mouth which for 
so long past has been vomiting forth its submarines 
and its destroyers against our hospital ships, and our 
merchant vessels, and the merchant vessels of coun- 
tries not engaged in this war. They blocked it so 
neatly, so effectively that it will be utterly useless as 
a submarine base for — I long to tell you the opinion 
of the experts, but I may not — many months to come. 

This shall be proved for you as we proceed. Now 
let me explain, very briefly, the nature of the task 
which the Navy set itself. You imagine Zeebrugge, 
perhaps, as a long and dreary breakwater, flanked 
by flat and sparsely populated country, with a few 
German coastguards dotted about, and a destroyer or 
two in the offing. I am certain that that is the mental 
picture most of us had of Zeebrugge — if we had one 
at all. 

Now think of Dover or Portsmouth as you knew 
them in times of peace. Conceive a garrison of no 
less than one thousand men ever on the breakwater. 
Glance at the plan of Zeebrugge reproduced in this 
book, and figure to yourself, at every possible coign 
of vantage, guns of mighty calibre, destroyers lurk- 
ing beneath the Mole on the harbour side, search- 
lights at all points, and great land guns in the distance 
ready to pulverise any hostile craft that dares to show 
its nose within miles. 

Picture all that as vividly as you can, and then ask 




Admiral Sir Roger Keyes 

In Command of the Operations. 




Captain Carpenter of the "Vindictive" 
JJ'ith one of t!:c Sliip's Mascots. 




Ensign Flown by the "Vindictive" 
During the Engagement at Zecbrugge. 



The Zeebrugge Affair 9 

yourself the question: "Would it be possible to storm 
Zeebrugge so successfully that block-ships could be 
sunk in the very mouth of the Canal and seal it up?" 
How would you have set about it ? With a huge force 
of cruisers? No, for the enemy must be taken by 
surprise. The action must be swift, cunning, and 
sure. The enemy must not be warned, or your one 
object, the blocking of the Canal, will be lost. 

It took Lord Jellicoe and Sir Rosslyn Wemyss and 
Sir Roger Keyes six long and anxious months to per- 
fect their plan, with the chance that the secret, at any 
moment, might slip out. But it was perfect at last, 
and the secret had not slipped out. Next they wanted 
a number of men — picked men with special qualities 
— who would be ready and eager to die if only this 
amazing coup might be achieved. Last of all they 
wanted a night on which all the conditions — the wind, 
the weather, the light — should be in their favour. 
They did not get that, but they went in, none the less, 
and did the job. 

We have spoken of Dover and Portsmouth. What 
would you say if you heard, some fine morning, that 
an almost obsolete German cruiser had come and leant 
up against the wall of Dover Harbour, that two Ger- 
man officers had calmly sat astride the wall in the 
course of their business, that some German sailors had 
landed on the wall and chased our gunners away 
from their guns, and that, in the meantime, three 
quite obsolete German ships, filled with concrete, had 
been sunk in the mouth of the harbour and blocked it? 
What in the world would you say ? 

I think you would at first refuse to believe it. Then, 
when some official communication lent colour to the 



10 The Zeebrugge Affair 

story, you would tear your hair, declare that all was 
lost, and utter extremely unpleasant things about the 
British Forces and those in charge of them. 

Yet this is precisely what happened at Zeebrugge. 
There is nothing more gallant in the annals of the 
British Navy. Not one man expected to come back. 
There is nothing more successful in the annals of the 
British Navy. They did to the full Just what they 
hoped and had planned to do. 




CHAPTER II 



I 



Captain Carpenter in His Attic 

CANNOT say that I enjoyed my journey to 
X . Though representing an important Gov- 
ernment Department, and duly accredited by his 
Majesty's Admiralty Office, I had misgivings. Should 
I find any of my heroes at X ? They were prob- 
ably scattered, on leave, to the four corners of the 
kingdom. Or, having found a few, would they be 
persuaded to tell their story? Heroes, I remembered, 
are proverbially reticent, and it was quite possible they 
would smilingly refer me to the official account, offer 
me a cigarette, and inquire earnestly after the new 
piece at the Marathonium. 

X was no longer a pleasure resort with a naval 

and military flavouring. It was a place of stern busi- 

II 



12 The Zeebrugge Affair 

ness. Gay dresses? There was hardly a feminine 
thing, if you except the sinister destroyers and twenty 
other varieties of war craft, to be seen. Men went 
their way quickly and full of purpose. That purpose 
may have been dinner, but even meals are short and 
businesslike at X . 

The hotel — almost the only one extant — was nicely 
filled with heroes in embryo. The American accent 
fell pleasantly on the ear. 

Presently my luck began. Passing through the hall 
after dinner, I reaped the reward of labour in the 
early days of the war. In those days I filled a humble 
position at the Admiralty, and here, advancing to- 
wards me, was an officer under whom I had, quite 
inefficiently, served. 

To him swiftly I imparted the purpose of my mis- 
sion, and by him, in the kindest way, I was conveyed 
back to the Admiral's office. Things began to move. 
Gentlemen in blue and gold began to take a human as 
well as an official interest. 

We had come to a halt outside a room on the first 
floor. There were two officers in the room, the door 
of which stood open. One was a boy. The other, 
whose face seemed vaguely familiar, wore the four 
broad gold bands that denote a captain in the Royal 
Navy. I studied him more closely, and noted a spare 
figure of medium height, a pale face, clear-cut fea- 
tures, and blue eyes that lit up the whole countenance 
with radiant intelligence. But there was something- 
tired, too, about that face — a look that told of mental 
and physical strain, of days of great anxiety, of sleep- 
less nights, and of an ordeal recently passed. Here, 
for a certainty, was one of my "objectives." 



The Zeebruo-ere Affair 13 



'oe> 



''Who's that?/' I whispered to my guide. 

"Captain Carpenter," was the answer. 

"The man ^vho commanded the Vindictive f" 

"Yes. Would you like to meet him?" 

"Very much." 

A second — and a prodigious — stroke of luck. Cap- 
tain Carpenter, one of the outstanding figures of the 
whole affair, was actually in X . 

Even as we conferred in whispers, however, he 
seemed to scent danger. With a word to the young 
officer, he came out of the room, ran up the next flight 
of stairs, and was gone. We entered the room. I 
repeated my little piece to the young officer. 

"Oh, yes," said he. "Well, now, I wonder which 
people we can find for you? Nearly everybody, you 
see, is on leave." 

"Except Captain Carpenter," I suggested. 

The young officer disappeared and reappeared. He 
looked intensely relieved. 

"Will you come up to Captain Carpenter's room?" 

I floated up, and up, and up. The house was an 
old-fashioned one — just such a house as you will find 
on the front of any old-fashioned seaport town. We 
reached the attic — originally designed, no doubt, for a 
maid's bedroom. But that humble apartment is 
destined to become historic, for here many of the plans 
were drawn up that resulted in the splendid success of 
Zeebrugge and, later, of Ostend. 

"Come in," said Captain Carpenter. 




CHAPTER III 



How the Plans Were Laid 



HAVE a cigarette. Now, what can I do for 
you?" 
I repeated my little piece. 

"Well, I don't know that I can add much to the 
official account." 

Two of my apprehensions had proved correct. But, 
before he could inquire earnestly after the new piece 
at the Marathonium, I pointed to a queer object on the 
floor. It was about four feet long and three feet 
wide. It was made of some malleable substance, and 
tinted a dull red. It was long, and sinuous, and deco- 
rated with tiny turrets. The base of the whole affair 
was painted a bluish colour. The extreme edges on 
the far side sagged off into a dirty brown. 
"What's that?" I asked abruptly. 

14 



The Zeebrugge Affair 15 

"That? Oh, that's the Mole, you know." 

''Is this the model from which they worked out the 
plans?" 

"Yes. Does it interest you?" 

"Enormously," I said. And so it did, but the main 
point was that it still interested him. It was bad for 
him, no doubt, to have Zeebrugge on the brain after 
all the terrible experiences he had endured, but it was 
my duty to my Department — possibly to a larger audi- 
ence — -to take advantage, if I could, of this very 
natural obsession. 

"Then let's sit down and have a look at it." 

We drew our chairs close to the model, and he began 
to tell me about it. It was the sailor talking, the keen 
navigator, the born fighter. 

"Here," said Captain Carpenter, digging with his 
cane at the model, "is the Mole, which is eighty yards 
wide and about a mile long. It's divided up into por- 
tions, and you must understand that we knew all about 
it in peace times. 

"This thin piece at the end we call the Lighthouse 
Pier. There are powerful searchlights, of course, at 
the end of that pier. Next we come to the end of the 
Mole proper, where we knew they had at least three 
very big guns. Coming along towards the land we 
have two sheds, one containing naval stores. So the 
Mole goes on in a curve until we get to the Viaduct. 
That's the thing we blew up with the submarine. It 
connects the Mole with the shore end, and took an 
immense time to build on account of the strong cur- 
rent." 

"Why," I asked, "did they have a viaduct? Why 
not have built the Mole solid all the way along?" 



16 The Zeebrugge Affair 

"Because of the silt in the harbour. They found 
that unless they allowed for the flow of the tide — I'm 
talking, of course, of when Zeebrugge was built, long 
before the war — they could not prevent the harbour 
from silting up, which, however they might dredge, 
would soon have blocked the entrance to the Canal. 
So they made that viaduct. It took, as I say, an un- 
conscionable time to construct, even under peace con- 
ditions. There were railway lines across it, and so 
on. Now it's in ruins, and they'll have the pleasant 
job of reconstructing it, if they can, under showers of 
bombs from our aeroplanes. 

"Well, now, here is the entrance to the Bruges 
Canal. That, also, was tremendously strongly forti- 
fied with big guns and searchlights. There were also 
guns along the banks of the Canal, and very power- 
ful guns protecting the whole harbour from the shore. 
Then you must take into account the destroyers lying 
in the harbour. There were also some of those. We 
sank one. Just lobbed things over the Mole and sank 
it. No doubt whatever about that. 

"Our job, however, was to block that Canal." 

"Just a moment. Would you say that Zeebrugge 
was as strongly fortified as X ?" 

"It was as strongly fortified," he replied, "as the 
Germans could fortify it, and they know something 
about fortification. The strength of the garrison was 
never less than a thousand men." 

"How long did it take to make the plans?" 

"We began last November, and we were at it all the 
time until the thing came ofif. I was at the Admiralty 
when the work started, after three and a half years 
with the Fleet." 



The Zeebrugge Affair 17 

"Then you practically came from a desk at the Ad- 
miralty to take command of the Vindictive f" 

*'Yes, thanks to Sir Roger Keyes, one of the finest 
and most gallant men that ever breathed. Not a man 
under him that wouldn't cut off his right hand for him. 
He'd have been in this up to the neck if he'd been 
allowed to take the risk. But that wouldn't have done, 
of course. He had to be in charge of the whole opera- 
tion. So he very kindly told me I might command the 
Vindictive." His eyes shone with gratitude for the 
chance. 

'There must have been a terrific lot of preliminary 
work!" 

Captain Carpenter opened a drawer and pulled out 
a huge bundle of typewritten matter. "Those are 
the instructions," he said. "Some of them were drawn 
up in this room. This is where Captain Halahan and 
I used to work." 

I remembered that Captain Halahan was one of the 
first killed after the Vindictive came alongside the 
Mole, and I looked at the plain wooden desk in the 
little attic where he had sat so many nights and 
worked so eagerly at the great scheme. 

"Yes," said Captain Carpenter thoughtfully, but 
without a trace of sentimentality — he was tenderly 
smiling, indeed, as he thought of his friend — "he went 
early, and so did a good many other fine chaps, but 
I don't think they'd mind that. None of us expected 
to come back." 

"How did you select the men ?" 

"Oh, they were all picked men — picked from volun- 
<"eers. We tried them out under intensive training 
until we got exactly the men we wanted. That, natu- 



18 The Zeebrugge Affair 

rally, was a long and anxious job. At first they thought 
it was for a hazardous operation in France, and they 
were keen enough then ; but later, when we entrusted 
them with the real secret, and they knew we were after 
Zeebrugge and Ostend, there was no holding them! 
Keenness is not the word for it ! They were amazing! 
And didn't they behave splendidly! Every man! 
Every single man ! By Jove, one can't say too much 
about the way those fellows did their jobs !" 

"I read in the official account that there were two 
previous attempts." 

"Yes. We actually started twice — the whole lot of 
us — the old Vindictive, the Daffodil, the Iris, the 
block-ships, the smoke-boats, the motor-launches, the 
monitors, and the destroyers. Once we got within 
fifteen miles of Zeebrugge and then had to turn back." 

"Rather a blow!" 

"Oh, rotten, of course. We were all strung up to 
it, but the conditions weren't what we wanted, and the 
Admiral wouldn't risk failure. It really wanted more 
pluck on his part to turn back than to go on. It was 
so easy for anyone to say he'd funked it. Not that 
he'd care twopence for that !" 

"But the night came at last!" 

"Yes, it came at last. Even then the conditions 
weren't perfect. It was touch and go whether we 
started. We wanted low visibility, you see, but it 
was a very clear day. Still, if we waited for abso- 
lutely perfect conditions, we should never go at all. 
All right,' said the Admiral; 'off you go.* And oft 
we went." 



/,'// i£^^m:* 




CHAPTER IV 



The Great Fight 



SOME people," said Captain Carpenter, "have- 
called this affair audacious. That isn't the word 
I should use for it." 

"What word would you use?" 

'Tmpertinent," he replied, laughingly. "Just imag- 
ine this Armada of smoke-boats, motor launches, 
ferry-boats, obsolete submarines, and ancient cruisers 
laden with concrete, headed by the old Vindictive,. 
setting out in broad daylight to attack the mighty 
fortress of Zeebrugge." 

"In broad daylight!" I exclaimed. 

"Certainly. We timed ourselves to reach the Mole 
by midnight, so, owing to our slow speed, we had to do 
three hours of the oversea passage in daylight." 

"How were the men? Excited?" 

"Oh, no; quite calm, and immensely reheved to 

19 



20 The Zeebrugge Affair 

be at it at last. Well, so soon as it got dark, it was 
dark! We could hardly see a thing, and when the 
smoke-boats got to work, pouring out great waves of 
dense smoke at regular intervals, which the light 
north-east wind carried right across the Mole and the 
harbour, pitch doesn't describe it !" 

"What about the mine- field?" 

"H'm! Anyway, we dodged it. My job, you un- 
derstand, was to get alongside the Mole, land my 
Marines, help Iris and Daffodil to do the same, stay 
there drawing the fire of the batteries and diverting 
attention while the block-ships got into the Canal and 
sunk themselves, then get the Marines back on board, 
shove off, and clear out as quickly as possible. Inci- 
dentally, of course, we meant to put out of action as 
many Huns as was convenient by fire from our guns. 
You've seen the picture of the fighting-top ? That was 
filled with Marines armed with Lewis guns. They did 
capital work. I'll come to that later. 

"We got pretty near the Mole before they saw us, 
and then the fun began! Up went the star-shells, 
the guns began blazing, and we went pell-mell for the 
old Mole like that." A savage dig at the model with 
his cane. "I had intended to fetch up just here" — 
he indicated a spot on the exterior of the great wall 
pretty near the head of it — "but actually came in 
here" — a little further inland. 

"We'd had things called 'brows' constructed — a sort 
of light drawbridge with a hinge in the middle. These 
were lowered away, but the current was so strong 
against the Mole, and the Vindictive bounced up and 
down so nimbly, that the men had the devil of a job 
to drop the ends of these brows on the wall. 



The Zeebrugge Affair 21 

"All this time, naturally enough, the Huns were 
blazing at us with everything they'd got. If you have 
a look at the Vindictive in the morning, you'll soon 
see what they were doing to us. We were just swept 
with fire from two sides. Even before the party could 
begin to land, Colonel Elliot and Captain Halahan, 
poor chaps, who were in charge of that part of the 
business, were killed. 

'The Iris went ahead of me and came alongside 
the Mole just here" — a little nearer the shore end. 
"They tried to hang on with their grapnels, but 
couldn't quite manage it, so Lieut.-Commander Brad- 
ford and Lieut. Hawkins scrambled ashore and sat 
on the parapet, trying to fix the grapnels. They were 
both killed. . . . 

"In the meantime, owing to the difficulty of secur- 
ing to the Mole when alongside, I ordered the Daffodil 
to continue pushing, according to plan, so as to keep us 
in position. This was a pity, because she was full of 
men, and they couldn't land to help with the fighting. 
Eventually, some of them scrambled across the Vin- 
dictive and landed that way. 

"The wind had changed about fifteen minutes be- 
fore we came alongside the Mole; all the smoke had 
cleared ofT and the harbour was plain to the eye. That 
helped the Huns to pot at us, and they took fine 
advantage of it. The din, as you can guess, was ter- 
rific, and I think they got the old Vindictive in every 
visible spot. 

"Suddenly the thing happened for which we had 
been, semi-consciously, waiting. There was a tremen- 
dous roar, and up went a huge tower of flame and 
debris and bodies into the black sky! My fellows 



22 The Zeebrugge Affair 

cheered like mad, for they knew what it meant. Sand- 
ford had got home beneath the viaduct with his an- 
cient submarine and touched her off. I never saw 
such a column of fiame ! It seemed a mile high ! 

"I must tell you a curious feature of this affair. 
As he approached the Mole they got the searchlights 
on to him and began firing at him. That was a nasty 
position, because she was stufifed full of explosives, 
and also had a big quantity of petrol on board. But 
when they saw him still coming on, and dashing 
straight at the Mole, they stopped firing and simply 
gaped. I suppose they thought he was mad. 

"Anyway, they paid for their curiosity. On the 
viaduct itself there were a whole lot of Huns — masses 
of them. There they stood, staring at Sandford in 
his submarine. The searchlights lit them up. Then, 
presently, came the explosion, and bang went the 
whole lot to glory! They must have been the most 
surprised Huns since the war started. 

"All this time, of course, a lot of other things were 
happening. Many of the seamen and Marines had 
landed on the Mole and were making fine play with 
the astonished Germans. Some went right to the head 
of the Mole and found the guns deserted. One gun, 
I must tell you, had not even been uncovered, which 
is clear proof that the garrison was taken by surprise. 
Others were chasing the enemy all down the Mole 
towards the viaduct, which they were never to cross, 
and some went into the shed I told you about and 
dealt with such people as they found. 

"The men in the fighting-top were also doing fell 
work. All along the Mole, you see, and close under 
the fifteen-foot parapet, there are dug-outs or funk- 



The Zeebrugge Affair 23 

holes. At first the Huns popped into these, but by- 
and-by it occurred to them that they would certainly 
be found and spitted if they stayed there, so the bright 
idea occurred to them of nipping across the Mole 
and dropping down the side into their own destroyers 
lying there. An excellent scheme but for our fellows 
in the fighting-top, who picked them off with their 
Lewis guns as they ran. 

''Those chaps in the fighting-top had to pay for it, 
though, in the end. They were attracting a lot of 
attention, and the Huns were constantly trying to 
drop a shell amongst them. They succeeded at last, 
I'm sorry to say, and laid out every man jack but one 
— Sergeant Finch. He was wounded badly, but 
dragged himself out from under the bodies of his 
pals and went on working his little gun until he 
couldn't work it any longer. 

''Now we come to the block-ships. We saw Thetis 
come steaming into the harbour in grand style. She 
made straight for the opening to the Canal, and you 
can imagine that she was a blaze of light and a target 
for every big thing they could bring to bear. She 
was going toppingly, all the same, when she had the 
rotten luck to catch her propeller in the defence-nets. 
Even then, however, she did fine work. She signalled 
instructions to the Intrepid and Iphigenia, and so they 
managed to avoid the nets. It was a gorgeous piece 
of co-operation ! 

"And, by the way, I'm not at all sure that Thetis 
won't give even more trouble to the enemy than the 
other two. I told you something, I think, about the 
tendency of the harbour to silt up. Well, Thetis is 
lying plump in the channel that must always be kept 



24 The Zeehrugge Affair 

clear of silt. The consequence is that the silt will 
collect all round her and over her, and I doubt whether 
she will ever be removable. 

"To get back to the other block-ships. In went 
Intrepid, and in after her went Iphigenia. They 
weren't content, you know, to sink themselves at the 
mouth of the Canal. That was not the idea at all. 
They had to go right in, with guns firing point-blank 
at them from both banks, sink their ships, and get 
back as best they could. And they did it. They 
blocked that Canal as neatly and effectively as we 
could have wished in our most optimistic moments, 
and then, thanks to the little motor-launches, which 
were handled with the finest skill and pluck, the com- 
manders and men got back to safety. To-morrow I'll 
show you some aeroplane photographs which are due 
in from France, and you'll see for yourself how beau- 
tifully Intrepid and Iphigenia are lying." 

"And how long will it take to clear them away?" 

"We've had the opinion of the most expert salvage- 
men from Liverpool, and they say months. Per- 
sonally, I'm prepared to swear that it won't be less 
than months." 

"What may I say?" 

"Say 'some' months." 

"Can't they blow them up?" 

"Not a bit of it. How can you blow up a thing 
that's already blown up?" 

"I don't know. Let's get back to the fight." 

"Right. As soon as we saw that the block-ships 
were sunk we knew that our job was done. Now came 
the most ticklish part of the business — to get away. 
Up to this point we had been protected, so far as our 




Official Sea-Plane Photograph of the Viaduct 

Destroyed by Lieut. -Commander Sand ford, showing the Serious Gap 
and the Temporary Planking. 




LlEUT.-COMMANDER SaNDFORD 

The Hero of the Submarine Exploit, recovering from his Injuries. 




Uh "-^ 



The Zeebrugge Affair 25 

hull was concerned, by the Mole. We knew that, 
directly we left the Mole, we should be in for it. 

"The signal arranged for the men to re-embark was 
a long blast from Vindictive's siren. But that had 
gone with a lot of other tackle, so we did the best we 
could with Daffodil's little hooter. (Ferry passengers 
across the Mersey must know it well.) It wasn't 
much of a hoot, but the fellows heard it, and made 
for the scaling-ladders. 

'This was the Hun's chance. The fire turned on 
those chaps as they chambered up the ladders, most 
of them trying to carry a dead or wounded pal, was 
awful. Talk about heroism ! Every man was a hero ! 
You must ask some of them who actually landed to 
tell you about that. Wonderful! 

*'We got them aboard at last, and stayed to make 
certain that nobody was left behind. Then we shoved 
off from the Mole, which had had enough of us for 
one night, and made for home at our best speed. In- 
stantly the big shore-guns and everything else vicious 
blazed away, but the very wind which had turned 
against us when we arrived now stood our friend. 
We worked all our smoke-boxes like mad, and the 
smoke saved us. They landed some shells home, of 
course, and a lot of poor fellows in the Iris were killed 
by one shell just as they were leaving the Mole. But 
most of the stuff aimed at the Vindictive fell short, 
thank God, and we finally ran out of range. 

"It was a good fight. I think the Huns had the 
wind up that night. . . . 

"Where are you staying? . . . Good. So am I. 
We'll walk along together." 




[From a special photograph. 

The Steering-wheel of H.M.S. Vindictive. 



CHAPTER V 



A Museum in a Trunk 



"^HE clocks of X were pointing to midnight 



when we came down from Captain Carpenter's 
little office under the roof. The night was dark, but 
out to sea there were strange lights which boded ill, 
one felt, to hostile and inquisitive strangers. 

We had been talking for about an hour — or, rather, 
Captain Carpenter had been patiently explaining the 
details of the attack, adapting his terms to the intelli- 
gence of a mere landsman. Anyway, I know that my 

26 



The Zeebrugge Affair 27 

head ached with the concentrated excitement of it all, 
and we both grasped eagerly at the two last bottles of 
ginger ale from the night porter's store. 

"Incidentally," I remarked, ''you have told me noth- 
ing at all of your own experiences and sensations." 

"Oh," he laughed, "they were so confused that I 
couldn't possibly analyse them. I know there was the 
very devil of a row, and vast quantities of smoke, and 
all that sort of thing." 

"I don't quite understand how it was that you, 
personally, were not killed." 

"Neither do I. It's a trite phrase, I know, but I 
must have had a charmed life. Fellows on each side 
of me were cut to bits with bursting shells. Yet I got 
nothing worse than a flesh wound in the shoulder 
from a fragment of shell." 

"By the way," I observed, "I read somewhere that 
you actually brought away a huge piece of the Mole 
on the deck of the Vindictive f" 

"Quite right. Like to see a bit of it?" 

"To-morrow?" 

"To-night, if you like. I've got some up in my bed- 
room." 

Thus it happened that we went up in the lift to 
have a look at the Mole, There was a trunk at the 
foot of the Captain's bed. Unlocking this, he pro- 
duced a large lump of crumbly substance and placed 
it in my hands. I had heard of people chipping frag- 
ments off Shakespeare's house and Canterbury Cathe- 
dral, but this went one better. 

"Yes. I think you were right in using the word 
'impertinence.' " 

He wrapped the fragment in cotton-wool, explain- 



28 The Zeebrugge Affair 

ing that it crumbled so very easily and was intended 
as a gift. The huge block that fell on the deck of the 
Vindictive was to be divided up. Sir Roger Keyes, of 
course, would claim a share, and the Lords of the 
Admiralty, but the main bulk he had decided to pre- 
sent to the War Museum in London, for memorial 
purposes. 

I was still peering into the trunk. A miscellaneous 
jumble met the eye — a cap, a flag, a leather case for 
binoculars, two pairs of goggles, a broken watch (or 
was it a chronometer?), and a roll of tattered charts. 

"Don't shut it for a moment," I begged. "Are 
these more souvenirs ?" 

"Well, just one or two little things of personal 
interest. Care to see 'em?" 

"If you don't mind showing them." 

"That's the cap I was wearing at the time. It's 
rather a shabby old thing, but I thought it hardly 
worth while to put on a good cap for a job of that sort. 
Good thing I didn't." 

It had been perforated from back to front and 
from side to side with bullets. In each case the bullet 
quite obviously missed the scalp by the fraction of an 
inch. 

"Just as well," I agreed. "Pity to waste a really 
good cap on a place like Zeebrugge. You were evi- 
dently there. What happened to the binocular case?" 

"Well, that's rather interesting. I had my glasses 
in my hand most of the time, so far as I remember, 
and the leather case, of course, was slung at my 
back. A bullet went right through it, and yet I knew 
nothing at all about it. Wasn't that rum?" 



The Zeebrugge Affair 29 

'The gods apparently want you on earth a little 
longer. The barometer went as well, I observe." 

*'It did. All in bits. I don't know how or when. 
Oh, here are the old charts." He unrolled three large 
charts that looked as if rats had been feeding on 
them for six months. From each chart huge pieces 
had entirely disappeared, and what was left looked 
particularly mangy. 

Captain Carpenter called my attention to the chart 
of Zeebrugge. 

*'We had mapped out three courses, you see, to al- 
low for the wind and tide. Eventually we came round 
here, and the tide carried us alongside the Mole — 
there. Sorry they're in such a rotten state, but the 
chart-house was a nasty mess. Quite chawed up." 

Last of all he showed me the flag — the glorious en- 
sign — blackened with smoke and considerably holed. 
''We kept it flying all the time," he explained. "We 
thought we might as well." 

I gazed at it — as many thousands of people will 
gaze at it when it finds a suitable home — in reverence. 
Then, the hour being nearly one o'clock, I took a 
grateful and respectful leave. 

"See you in the morning," said the Captain. "I 
breakfast about eight-thirty. You've got to look at 
those aeroplane photographs, and then we'll send you 
off in a car to inspect the Vindictive. Good-night." 

At my last glimpse of him, he was bundling his 
priceless souvenirs back into the trunk at the foot of 
his bed. 




CHAPTER VI 
On Board H.M.S. Vindictive 

WE returned next morning to the Admiral's 
office, and I was presently staring through a 
powerful glass at the aeroplane photographs of the 
sunken block-ships. Unless you are accustomed to 
studying photographs taken from aeroplanes, they are 
at first a little puzzling, but I soon made out the 
Intrepid and Iphigenia quite clearly. The former was 
lying almost dead across the narrow channel, and had 
heeled over. Her nose rested on the mud-bank one 
side, and her stern on the mud-bank on the other side. 
As for the Iphigenia, sTie lay bang across the bed of 
the Canal. Both ships, in short, were in such a posi- 
tion that nothing much heavier than a cork could pos- 
sibly pass them. I have laid stress upon this, because 

30 



The Zeebrugge Affair 31 

so many people have asked, "Did the expedition suc- 
ceed? Is the Canal blocked?" I can certify that the 
expedition did succeed, and that the Canal is utterly 
and completely blocked. 

I now hopped into the Staff Car (with an acute 
sense of my unworthiness), and, accompanied by a 
Commander and a Lieutenant, who were all that the 
historic courtesy of the Navy could lead one to ex- 
pect, went off to view the remains of the Vindictive. 

I say "remains" advisedly, for no ship that had 
withstood for one solid hour that fearful bombard- 
ment could hope to return anything else but a wreck, 
if she returned at all. 

The great shell-torn funnels first caught the eye, 
with the smoke even then pouring out at a hundred 
holes. Next one noticed the famous "brows," one or 
two intact, others splintered. The false deck, built 
to enable the storming party to gain the Mole, was 
still in position, lined with protective sandbags. I 
saw the ruined chart-house, and the shell-torn bridge, 
and the specially constructed flame-throwing huts. 

Men swarmed everywhere, trying (as I then 
thought) to restore chaos to order. And one was 
struck with the apparent hopelessness of it all. The 
old ship had done her job, and might, one felt, be 
allowed to rest in peace — perhaps alongside the Vic- 
tory. But, as we now know, there was a far greater 
end in store for her ! 

PecuHarly interesting was the fighting-top — a cir- 
cular nest high above the bridge. Here it was that 
the Marines with the Lewis guns were stationed. One 
pictured that tiny fortress filled with men, every man 
a picked shot. Suddenly comes the crash of the enemy 



32 The Zeebrugge Affair 

shell — a lucky shot that penetrates the armour of the 
fighting-top and lays low every man but one. The 
story of that man has been already touched upon. 
An hour later I was by his bedside in a hospital some 
miles away. 

Yes, you had only to look at the Vindictive to 
realise what that night attack on Zeebrugge really 
meant. You could picture the landing-parties dash- 
ing across those narrow, oscillating ''brows" on to 
the parapet, whence they must drop sixteen feet be- 
fore getting to grips with the enemy. And you could 
picture the return of the grimy survivors, each man 
with a pal in his arms. 

You could picture the decks strewn with the dead 
and wounded. You could see brave men, mortally 
hurt, raising themselves in agony to cheer on their 
comrades as they rushed to the battle. You could see 
the gunners, and the firemen, and the gallant fellows 
who were there to work the rockets and the smoke- 
boxes. 

Finally, you could see the pale, eager face of the 
Commander, now on the bridge, now visiting the 
wounded, now issuing directions through his mega- 
phone to the tiny attendant ferry-boats. And all the 
while the guns roar, and the shells shriek and crash, 
and the bullets hail on the dead and on the living. 

"Bit knocked about, isn't she?" said the Com- 
mander. 

"Rather a mess," I agreed. 




CHAPTER VII 
The Man Who Felt Frightened 



'fc>' 



IT was a military atmosphere into which I was 
plunged at Y . The Marines, whose gallant 

share in the Zeebrugge exploit ranks equal to that of 
the Navy, and will never be forgotten, were ready for 
me. I was taken first of all to the office of Major 
Carpenter — a cousin, oddly enough, of Captain Car- 
penter, R.N. 

"Now," said he, "one of the men I want you to see 
is Captain Arthur Chater. Why he isn't here I don't 

know, but if you'll wait a few minutes " 

"Could I see anybody else in the meantime?" 
"Well, there are two interesting men in the hos- 
pital. One is Lieut. -Commander Sandford, who was 

33 



34 The Zeebrugge Affair 

in charge of the submarine that blew up the 
▼iaduct " 

"I must see him at all costs !" 

"I think I can arrange that. The other is Sergeant 
Finch, who's going to get the V.C. I'll telephone 
over to the hospital and let them know you're coming. 
Then I'll have Chater here by the time you get back." 

Off I went to the hospital. Sergeant Finch, they 
told me, was downstairs, and Commander Sandford 
— he was Lieutenant Sandford when he went for the 
Mole — in a cubicle upstairs. 

The sister in charge of Finch's ward met mc in 
the passage. 

*T'm afraid you can't see Finch just at present." 

"He is engaged, perhaps?'* 

"Yes, with the barber." 

I peeped through the glass panel, and there, sure 
enough, was my hero with his face half-smothered in 
lather. So I climbed the stairs and was shown int# 
Lieut-Commander Sandford's tiny apartment. 

"A friend to see you," announced the nurse. 

"A stranger at present," I corrected her, "but not 
for long, I hope." 

Lieut. -Commander Sandford seemed pleased to see 
me. I gathered that he was dull. It was a hard thing, 
I reflected, to be dull after charging into the Mole. 
However, somebody, no doubt, will make that up to 
him by and by. 

He was young, this hero, and of a merry tempera- 
ment. Our interview developed into quite a jovial 
affair. 

"Badly wounded?" I asked. 



The Zeebrugge Affair ^ 

"Oh, not so very. My hand, as you see, and I got 
one through the thigh." 

"You'll soon be out and about, the doctor tells me. 
In the meantime, you've made a horrid mess of that 
viaduct." 

"Have I ?" he chuckled. 

"Don't you know? Well, I can give you the latest 
information. It's all gone to glory. The Huns arc 
creeping backwards and forwards on a single plank." 

"That's good." He laughed again. 

"What exactly happened? I gather that you 
perched your submarine in the very middle of the 
woodwork beneath the viaduct?" 

"There was no woodwork, so far as I know. You 
see, the Huns had covered all that over with a sort 
of steel curtain, but they'd left a hole in this curtain 
for the tide to run through. You know about the silt 
and all that? Well, as soon as we saw that hole we 
made straight for it." 

"Were you on deck?" 

"Oh, yes. We were all on deck." 

"But how was it you weren't swept off the deck bj 
the steel curtain?" 

"Why, don't you see, we rammed her in as far as 
the conning-tower, and then she stuck. All I had to 
do after that was to launch a boat, get the men into it, 
touch the button that fired the fuse, climb into the 
boat after the men, and get clear away before the 
explosion took place." 

"Oh! That was all, was it?" 

"Yes. Unluckily we fouled the propeller of the 
boat, and so two of us had to row. There were only 
two oars. I don't suppose," he added, with a specially 



36 The Zeebrugge Affair 

deep chuckle, "any two men ever pulled so hard be- 
fore." 

"You knew what was going to happen in a min- 
ute?" 

"Rather! I'd pressed the button!" 

"They let you get right up to the Mole, I under- 
stand?" 

"Yes. They all stopped firing. It was rather rum. 
I suppose they took it for granted we'd gone mad." 

"They stood and watched you? I presume you 
know the actual viaduct was crowded with Huns?" 

"No, I didn't. I'm glad I didn't." 

"Why ? Would you have felt some compunction in 
blowing them up ?" 

"Lord, no! But I was quite frightened enough as 
it was!" 

We both laughed at that. 

"Was it a good explosion?" 

"I think so. I should have enjoyed it more, only 
just before it happened I got wounded." 

"That was a pity. I was having a little chat with 
Captain Carpenter last night, and he tells me the 
flames were a mile high." 

"A mile?" mused Mr. Sandford. "Golly! Some 
bang!" 

"One of the best bangs on record," I assured him. 
"Now I must pop downstairs and see Sergeant Finch." 

"Righto ! I say, are you going to write about this 
stunt?" 

"If I'm spared." 

"Shall we have a chance of seeing it?" 

"You shall," I promised him, and left him con- 
tentedly chuckling. 




CHAPTER VIII 

What the Marines Told the Huns 

SERGEANT FINCH, V.C, had finished his 
shave, and looked as clean and neat as any hero 
out of a fighting-top could expect. 

"They tell me," I began, "that you've got the V.C. 
Congratulations !" 

"Thank you, sir. But I don't know what I did to 
get it, and that's a fact. Seems to me if one has the 
V.C, the whole lot ought to have it." 

"Still, that being impossible, they've made you the 
victim. How's the hand?" 

"Going on a treat. I didn't want to come here. I 
wanted to go back to barracks with my pal. I never 
noticed I was hurt." 

"Pretty hot in that fighting-top, wasn't it?" 

"Pretty fair." 

"I saw it this morning." 

"Oh, did you, sir?" He was more interested now. 
"Then you saw where the shell came through, I sup' 

37 



The Zeebrusja-e Affair 



toto' 



pose ? We all went down in a bunch, and I had a jol» 
to gtt out from underneath." 

"And then you went on working the gun?" 

"I suppose I did, but I don't really know what I 
did. One of my pals was badly hit, and I tried to get 
him down on deck. I know that. But it's a fact I 
don't really know what I did. All I do know is I'm 
dreading this business that's coming." 

''Don't you worry about that," I reassured him. 
''You'll find Somebody very charming to you." 

"Oh, it isn't that part," replied the Sergeant. "It's 
getting back to the barracks." 

He had visions, I could see, of impetuous and quite 
strange ladies flinging their arms about his modest 
neck. 

"I shall look out for the snapshots." 

Finch shrugged his shoulders, and I left him antici- 
pating the worst. 

Captain Chater, who had been the Adjutant of the 
Fourth Battalion Royal Marines, was busy down at 
the stables, but he very kindly came along to the Mess 
and made sketches on a piece of blotting paper. He 
was about twenty-three years of age, and had the 
same healthy delight in every kind of bang as Lieu- 
tenant-Commander Sandford. I understood him to 
say that the two senior officers. Colonel B. N. Elliot, 
D.S.O., R.M.L.I., and Major A. A. Cordner, were 
both killed on the port side of the bridge of the Vin- 
dictive whilst that vessel was approaching the Mole, 
and within only a hundred yards of it. (He was 
standing with them at the time.) This catastrophe 
left Major B. G. Weller, D.S.C., in command of the 
battalion. 



The Zeebrugge Affair 39 

"The most awkward part of the business," Captain 
Chater explained, "was that sixteen-foot drop. One 
didn't know, you see, what might be below. Not that 
the men minded. They were simply grand! Ydlcd 
like mad all the time, and went for the Huns as 
though the whole thing was a football match. The 
Marines are rather bucked about the show." 

"We all know about the Marines — including the 
enemy! How did you feel on the way over?" 

"Oh, I didn't feel much. We'd had two pretious 
shots, you know. One was getting used to it." 

"Did it seem a long time that you were oa the 
Mole?" 

"No. Awfully short! We were quite surprised 
when the signal came for us to get back. Getting back 
was the worst part. We had scaling ladders and 
ropes, but the fire was very heavy, and the men 
wouldn't go without their pals. They insisted on tak- 
ing everybody, living or dead. You can imagine that 
that took time." 

"Anyway," I suggested, "seeing that it's all orer, 
what about hopping into the car with me and coming 
back to X ?" 

For the first time during our conversation he gren 
serious. 

"To tell you the truth," he admitted, in a low tone, 
"I've been racking my brains for an excuse to do that, 
and can't think of one!" 




CHAPTER IX 



I Hear They Want More 



TWO very brief conversations, and this imper- 
fect and unpretentious chronicle of Zeebrugge 
comes to a close. 

The first is with Commander E. O. B. Seymour 
Osborne, who had charge of the gunnery operations 
aboard the Vindictive. I found him at lunch with 
another officer in a pleasant apartment on the sea- 
front at X . 

'T was told," I began, "that I must not leave with- 
out seeing you." 

"Oh? I don't quite know why." 

"You were in it, weren't you?" 

"Yes, I was in it." 

"And well in it, I believe?" 

40 








X 




5 o 



^ 

K 




Souvenirs of the Great Fight: (1) "Vindictive' s' Operation Orders 
as Recovered from the Wrecked Chart-house; (2) Whistle blozun as a 
Signal to Storm the Mole; (3) Token to be given to the Chief Engi- 
neer of the "Vindictive" to Scuttle the Ship if she became Disabled. 



The Zeebrugge Affair 41 

'Tretty well in it. Have a glass of port?" 

"No, thanks." 

'It will do you a lot of good." 

*'If you really think that . Now, please ten me 

something." 

'Til tell you one thing. The men were great. I 
saw one chap come staggering on board with a pal in 
his arms. Whether the pal was alive or dead I 
couldn't say, and I doubt whether he could. But I 
heard him murmuring to him, *I wouldn't leave yer, 
Bill ! Did you think I would?' " 

That's all. The other remark, which has since 
proved highly significant, came from an officer who 
very courteously gave me a lift to the station in his 
car. No less a personage than the Admiral came out 
to see him off. 

'The Adm.iral tells me," he observed, as we drove 
aw^ay, "that the standard was very high in this affair." 

I made no comment. None was needed. 

"By the way," he went on, "have you noticed that 
a lot of the chaps seem a bit used up? Rather nervy 
and all that?" 

"Not surprising, is it?" 

"Well, it looks to me as though they want more 
of it." 

They got it. 

* * * 

A thrill ran through England when it heard that 
the Vindictive had been sunk in the very jaws of 
Ostend Harbour. The imagination dwelt on the old 
battleship — scarred, battered, broken, covered with 
glory. They wanted to make a show of her, and a 



'^ The Zeebrugge Affair 

fine show she would have made ; but her work was not 
jet done. One final honour was in store for her. 
Just as so many gallant men had died on her decks 
for the Cause of Freedom, so she, too, could perish in 
the same cause. 



BRITISH ADMIRALTY OFFICIAL NARRATIVE. 



ZEEBRUGGE AND OSTEND 

First Attack 

24th April, 1918. 

THOSE who recall High Wood upon the Somme 
— and they must be many, as it was after the 
battles of 19 16— may easily figure to themselves the 
decks of H.M.S. Vindictive as she lies to-day, a stark, 
black profile against the sea haze of the harbour amid 
the stripped, trim shapes of the fighting ships which 
throng these waters. That wilderness of debris, that 
litter of the used and broken tools of war, that lavish 
ruin and that prodigal evidence of death and battle, 
are as obvious and plentiful here as there. The ruined 
tank nosing at the stout tree which stopped it has its 
parallel in the flame-thrower hut at the port wing of 
Vindictive's bridge, its iron sides freckled with rents 
from machine-gun bullets and shell-splinters ; the tall 
white cross which commemorates the martyrdom of 
the Londoners is sister to the dingy, pierced White 
Ensign which floated over the fight of the Zeebrugge 
Mole. 

Looking aft from the chaos of her wrecked bridge, 
one sees, snug against their wharf, the heroic bour- 
geois shapes of the two Liverpool ferry-boats (their 
captains' quarters are still labelled "Ladies Only") 
Iris and Daffodil, which shared with Vindictive the 
honours and ardours of the fight. The epic of their 

43 



44 Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 

achievement shapes itself" in the light of that view 
across the scarred and littered decks, in that environ- 
ment of grey water and great still ships. 

Their objectives were the canal of Zeebrugge and 
the entrance to the harbour of Ostend — theirs, and 
those of five other veteran and obsolete cruisers and a 
mosquito fleet of destroyers, motor-launches and 
coastal motor-boats. Three of the cruisers. Intrepid, 
Iphigenia and Thetis, each duly packed with concrete 
and with mines attached to her bottom for the purpose 
of sinking her, Merrimac-isishion, in the neck of the 
canal, were aimed at Zeebrugge; two others, similarly 
prepared, were directed at Ostend. The function of 
Vindictive, with her ferry-boats, was to attack the 
great half -moon Mole which guards the "Zeebrugge 
Canal, land bluejackets and marines upon it, destroy 
what stores, guns, and Germans she could find, and 
generally create a diversion while the block-ships ran 
in and sank themselves in their appointed place. Vice- 
Admiral Keyes, in the destroyer Warwick, com- 
manded the operation. 

There had been two previous attempts at the attack, 
capable of being pushed home if weather and other 
conditions had served. The night of the 22nd offered 
nearly all the required conditions, and at some fifteen 
miles ofif Zeebrugge the ships took up their formation 
for the attack. Vindictive, which had been towing 
Iris and Daffodil, cast them off to follow under their 
own steam; Intrepid, Iphigenia, and Thetis slowed 
down to give the first three time to get alongside the 
Mole; Sirius and Brilliant shifted their course for 
Ostend; and the great swarm of destroyers and motor 
craft sowed themselves abroad upon their multifari- 



Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 45 

ous particular duties. The night was overcast and 
there was a drift of haze; down the coast a great 
searchHght swung its beams to and fro; there was a 
small wind and a short sea. 

From Vindictive's bridge, as she headed in towards 
the Mole with her faithful ferry-boats at her heels, 
there was scarcely a glimmer of light to be seen shore- 
wards. Ahead of her, as she drove through the water, 
rolled the smoke-screen, her cloak of invisibility, 
wrapped about her by the small craft. This was a 
device of Wing-Commander Brock, R.N.A.S., "with- 
out which," acknowledges the Admiral in Command, 
**the operation could not have been conducted." The 
north-east wind moved the volume of it shoreward 
ahead of the ships; beyond it, the distant town and its 
defenders were unsuspicious; and it was not till Vin- 
dictive, with her bluejackets and marines standing 
ready for the landing, was close upon the Mole that 
the wind lulled and came away again from the south- 
west, sweeping back the smoke-screen and laying her 
bare to the eyes that looked seaward. 

There was a moment immediately afterwards when 
it seemed to those in the ships as if the dim coast 
and the hidden harbour exploded into light. A star 
shell soared aloft, then a score of star shells ; the wav- 
ering beams of the searchlights swung round and set- 
tled to a glare; the wildfire of gun flashes leaped 
against the sky; strings of luminous green beads shot 
aloft, hung and sank; and the darkness of the night 
was supplanted by the nightmare daylight of battle 
fires. Guns and machine-guns along the Mole and bat- 
teries ashore woke to life, and it was in a gale of shell- 
ing that Vindictive laid her nose against the thirty- 



46 Zeebrugge and Ostend: OiRcial Narrative 

foot high concrete side of the Mole, let go an anchor, 
and signed to Daffodil to shove her stern in. Iris went 
ahead and endeavoured to get alongside likewise. 

The fire, from the account of everybody concerned, 
was intense. While ships plunged and rolled beside 
the Mole in an unexpected send of sea, Vindictive 
with her greater draught jarring against the founda- 
tion of the Mole with every plunge, they were swept 
diagonally by machine-gun fire from both ends of the 
Mole and by heavy batteries ashore. Commander 
A. F. B. Carpenter (now Captain) conned Vindic- 
tive from her open bridge till her stern was laid in, 
when he took up his position in the flame-thrower hut 
on the port side. It is to this hut that reference has 
already been made ; it is marvellous that any occupant 
of it should have survived a minute, so riddled and 
shattered is it. Officers of Iris, which was in trouble 
ahead of Vindictive, describe Captain Carpenter as 
''handling her like a picket-boat." 

Vindictive was fitted along the port side with a high 
false deck, whence ran the eighteen brows, or gang- 
ways, by which the storming and demolition parties 
were to land. The men were gathered in readiness on 
the main and lower decks, while Colonel Elliot, who 
was to lead the Marines, waited on the false deck just 
abaft the bridge, and Captain H. C. Halahan, who 
commanded the bluejackets, was amidships. The 
gangways were lowered, and scraped and rebounded 
upon the high parapet of the Mole as Vindictive 
rolled; and the word for the assault had not yet been 
given when both leaders were killed, Colonel Elliot 
by a shell and Captain Halahan by the machine-gun 
fire which swept the decks. The same shell that killed 



Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 47 

Colonel Elliot also did fearful execution in the for- 
ward Stokes Mortar Battery. 

"The men were magnificent." Every officer bears 
the same testimony. The mere landing on the Mole 
was a perilous business ; it involved a passage across 
the crashing, splintering gangways, a drop over the 
parapet into the field of fire of the German machine- 
guns which swept its length, and a further drop of 
some sixteen feet to the surface of the Mole itself. 
Many were killed and more were wounded as they 
crowded up to the gangways; but nothing hinderrd 
the orderly and speedy landing by every gangway. 

Lieutenant H. T. C. Walker had his arm carried 
away by a shell on the upper deck and lay in the dark- 
ness while the storming parties trod him under. He 
was recognised and dragged aside by the Commander. 
He raised his remaining arm in greeting. "Good luck 
to you," he called, as the rest of the stormers hastened 
by; "good luck." 

The lower deck was a shambles as the Commander 
made the rounds of his ship; yet those wounded and 
dying raised themselves to cheer as he made his tour. 
The crew of the howitzer which was mounted forward 
had all been killed ; a second crew was destroyed like- 
wise; and even then a third crew was taking over the 
gun. In the stern cabin a firework expert, who had 
never been to sea before — one of Captain Brock's em- 
ployees — was steadily firing great illuminating rock- 
ets out of a scuttle to show up the lighthouse on the 
end of the Mole to the block ships and their escort. 

The Daffodil, after aiding to berth Vindictive, 
should have proceeded to land her own men, but now 
Commander Carpenter ordered her to remain as she 



48 Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 

was, with her bows against Vindictive's quarter, 
pressing the latter ship into the Mole. Normally, Daf- 
fodil's boilers develop eighty pounds' pressure of 
steam per inch ; but now, for this particular task, Ar- 
tificer Engineer Sutton, in charge of them, maintained 
a hundred and sixty pounds for the whole period that 
she was holding Vindictive to the Mole. Her casual- 
ties,' owing to her position during the fight, were small 
— one man killed and eight wounded, among them her 
Commander, Lieutenant H. Campbell, who was struck 
ii: the right eye by a shell splinter. 

Iris had troubles of her own. Her first attempts to 
make fast to the Mole ahead of Vindictive failed, as 
her grapnels were not large enough to span the para- 
pet. Two officers, Lieut.-Commander Bradford and 
Lieutenant Hawkins, climbed ashore and sat astride 
the parapet trying to make the grapnels fast till each 
was killed and fell down between the ship and the wall. 
Commander Valentine Gibbs had both legs shot away 
and died next morning. Lieutenant Spencer, R.N.R., 
though wounded, conned the ship and Lieutenant Hen- 
derson, R.N., came up from aft and tod: command. 

Iris was obliged at last to change her position and 
fall in astern of Vindictive, and suffered very heavily 
from the fire. A single big shell plunged through the 
upper deck and burst below at a point where fifty-six 
marines were waiting the order to go to the gang- 
ways. Forty-nine were killed and the remaining 
§even wounded. Another shell in the ward-room, 
which was serving as sick bay, killed four officers 
and twenty-six men. Her total casualties were eight 
officers and sixty-nine men killed and three officers and 
a hundred and two men wounded. 



Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 49 

The storming and demolition parties upon the Mole 
met with no resistance from the Germans, other than 
the intense and unremitting fire. The geography of 
the great Mole, with its railway line and its many 
buildings, hangars, and store-sheds, was already well 
known, and the demolition parties moved to their ap- 
pointed work in perfect order. One after another 
the buildings burst into flame or split and crumpled 
as the dynamite went ofif. 

A bombing party, working up towards the Mole ex- 
tension in search of the enemy, destroyed several ma- 
chine-gun emplacements, but not a single prisoner re- 
warded them. It appears that upon the approach of 
the ships, and with the opening of the fire, the enemy 
simply retired and contented themselves with bringing 
machine-guns to the shore end of the Mole. And 
while they worked and destroyed, the covering party 
below the parapet could see in the harbour, by the 
light of the German star shells, the shapes of the 
block ships stealing in and out of their own smoke 
and making for the mouth of the canal. 

Thetis came first, steaming into a tornado of shell 
from the great batteries ashore. All her crew, save a 
remnant who remained to steam her in and sink her, 
had already been taken off her by the ubiquitous motor 
launches, but the remnant spared hands enough to 
keep her four guns going. It was hers to show the 
road to Intrepid and Iphigenia, who followed. 

She cleared the string of armed barges which de- 
fends the channel from the tip of the Mole, but had 
the ill-fortune to foul one of her propellers upon the 
net defence which flanks it on the shore side. The 
propeller gathered in the net and rendered her prac- 



50 Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 

tically unmanageable; the shore batteries found her 
and pounded her unremittingly; she bumped into a 
bank, edged off, and found herself in the channel 
again, still some hundreds of yards from the mouth 
of the canal, in a practically sinking condition. As 
she lay she signalled invaluable directions to the oth- 
ers, and here Commander R. S. Sneyd, D.S.O., accord- 
ingly blew the charges and sank her. A motor launch, 
under Lieutenant H. Littleton, R.N.V.R., raced along- 
side and took off her crew. Her losses were five killed 
''and five wounded. 

Intrepid, smoking like a volcano and with all her 
guns blazing, followed; her motor launch had failed 
to get alongside outside the harbour, and she had men 
enough for anything. Straight into the canal she 
steered, her smoke blowing back from her into 
Iphigenias eyes, so that the latter, blinded and going 
a little wild, rammed a dredger with a barge moored 
beside it, which lay at the western arm of the canal. 
She got clear though, and entered the canal pushing 
the barge before her. It was then that a shell hit the 
steam connections of her whistle, and the escape of 
steam which followed drove off some of the smoke and 
let her see what she was doing. 

Lieutenant Stuart Bonham-Carter, commanding the 
Intrepid, placed the nose of his ship neatly on the 
mud of the western bank, ordered his crew away, and 
blew up his ship by the switches in the chart-room. 
Four dull bumps was all that could be heard ; and im- 
mediately afterwards there arrived on deck the en- 
gineer, who had been in the engine-room during the 
explosion and reported that all was as it should be. 

Lieutenant E. W. Billyard-Leake, commanding 



Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 51 

Iphigenia, beached her according to arrangement on 
the eastern side, blew her up, saw her drop nicely 
across the canal, and left her with her engines still 
going to hold her in position till she should have 
bedded well down on the bottom. According to latest 
reports from air observation, the two old ships with 
their holds full of concrete are lying across the canal 
in a V position ; and it is probable that the work they 
set out to do has been accomplished and that the canal 
is effectively blocked. 

A motor launch, under Lieutenant P. T. Deane, 
R.N.V.R., had followed them in to bring away the 
crews, and waited further up the canal towards the 
mouth against the western bank. Lieutenant Bon- 
ham-Carter, having sent away his boats, was reduced 
to a Carley float, an apparatus like an exaggerated 
lifebuoy with a floor of grating. Upon contact with 
the water it ignited a calcium flare, and he was adrift 
in the uncanny illumination with a German machine- 
gun a few hundred yards away giving him its un- 
divided attention. 

What saved him was possibly the fact that the de- 
funct Intrepid was still emitting huge clouds of smoke, 
which it had been worth nobody's while to turn off. 
He managed to catch a rope as the motor launch 
started, and was towed for a while till he was observed 
and taken on board. Another officer jumped ashore 
and ran along the bank to the launch. A bullet from 
the machine-gun stung him as he ran, and when he 
arrived, charging down the bank out of the dark, he 
was received by a member of the launch's crew who 
attacked him with a hammer. 

The whole harbour was alive with small craft. As 



52 Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 

the motor launch cleared the canal, and came forth to 
the incessant geysers thrown up by the shells, rescuers 
and rescued had a view of yet another phase of the 
attack. The shore end of the Mole consists of a jetty, 
and here an old submarine, commanded by Lieutenant 
R. D. Sandford, R.N., loaded with explosives, was run 
into the piles and touched off, her crew getting away 
in a boat to where the usual launch awaited them. 

Officers describe the explosion as the greatest they 
ever witnessed — a huge roaring spout of flame that 
tore the jetty in half and left a gap of over lOO feet. 
The claim of another launch to have sunk a torpedo- 
boat alongside the jetty is supported by many ob- 
servers, including officers of the Vindictive, who had 
seen her mast and funnel across the Mole and noticed 
them disappear. 

Where every moment had its deed and every deed 
its hero, a recital of acts of valour becomes a mere 
catalogue. "The men were magnificent," say the of- 
ficers; the men's opinion of their leaders expresses it- 
self in the manner in which they followed them, in 
their cheers, in their demeanour to-day while they 
tidy up their battered ships, setting aside the inevit- 
able souvenirs, from the bullet-torn engines to great 
chunks of Zeebrugge Mole dragged down and still 
hanging in the fenders of the Vindictive. The motor 
launch from the canal cleared the end of the Mole and 
there beheld, trim and ready, the shape of the War- 
wick, with the great silk flag presented to the Admiral 
by the officers of his old ship, the Centurion. They 
stood up on the crowded decks of the little craft and 
cheered it again and again. 

While the Warwick took them on board, they saw 



Zeebnigge and Ostend: Official Narrative 53 

Vindictive, towed loose from the Mole by Daffodil, 
turn and make for home — a great black shape, with 
funnels gapped and leaning out of the true, flying a 
vest streamer of flame as her stokers worked her up — 
her, the ahnost wreck — to a final display of seventeen 
knots. Her forward funnel was a sieve; her decks 
were a dazzle of sparks; but she brought back intact 
the horseshoe nailed to it, which Sir Roger Keyes had 
presented to her commander. 

Meantime the destroyers North Star, Phoebe, and 
Warwick, which guarded the Vindictive from action 
by enemy destroyers while she lay beside the Mole, 
had their share in the battle. North Star (Lieut.- 
Commander K. C. Helyar, R.N.), losing her way in 
the smoke, emerged to the light of the star-shells, and 
was sunk. The German communique, which states 
that only a few members of the crew could be saved 
by them, is in this detail of an unusual accuracy, for 
the Phoshe (Lieut.-Commander H. E. Gore-Langton, 
R.N.), came up under a heavy fire in time to rescue 
nearly all. Throughout the operations monitors and 
the siege guns in Flanders, manned by the Royal 
Marine Artillery, heavily bombarded the enemy's bat- 
teries. 

The wind that blew back the smoke-screen at Zee- 
brugge served us even worse ofif Ostend, where that 
and nothing else prevented the success of an operation 
ably directed by Commodore Hubert Lynes, C.M.G. 
The coastal motor boats had lit the approaches and the 
ends of the piers with calcium flares and made a 
smoke-cloud which effectually hid the fact from the 
enemy. Sirius and Brilliant were already past the 
Stroom Bank buoy when the wind changed, revealing 



54 Zeebrugge and Ostend: Official Narrative 

the arrangements to the enemy, who extinguished the 
flares with gunfire. 

The Sirius was already in a sinking condition when 
at length the two ships, having failed to find the en- 
trance, grounded, and were forced therefore to sink 
themselves at a point about four hundred yards east 
of the piers, and their crews were taken off by motor 
launches under Lieutenant K. R. Hoare, R.N.V.R., 
and Lieutenant R. Bourke, R.N.V.R. 

The motor launches here were under the command 
of Commander Hamilton Benn, R.N.V.R., D.S.O., 
M.P., while those at Zeebrugge were commanded by 
Captain R. Collins, R.N. (the Vice- Admiral's Flag- 
Captain ). 

All the coastal motor boats were commanded by 
Lieutenant A. P. Wellman, D.S.O., R.N. The tor- 
pedo-boat destroyer flotilla was commanded by Cap- 
tain Wilfred Tomkinson, RN. 

The difficulty of the operation is to be gauged from 
the fact that from Zeebrugge to Ostend the enemy bat- 
teries number not less than 120 heavy guns, which can 
concentrate on retiring ships, during daylight, up to 
a distance of about sixteen miles. This imposes as a 
condition of success that the operation must be car- 
ried out at night, and not late in the night. It must 
take place at high water, with the wind from the 
right quarter, and with a calm sea for the small craft. 
The operation cannot be rehearsed beforehand, since 
the essence of it is secrecy, and though one might 
have to wait a long time to realise all the essential 
conditions of wind and weather, secrecy wears badly 
when large numbers of men are brought together in 
readiness for the attack. 



BRITISH ADMIRALTY OFFICIAL NARRATIVE. 



OSTEND 
Second Attack 

Dunkirk, nth May, 1918. 

THE Sirius lies in the surf some two thousand 
yards east of the entrance to Ostend Harbour, 
which she failed so gallantly to block; and when, in 
the early hours of yesterday morning, the Vindictive 
groped her way through the smoke-screen and headed 
for the entrance, it was as though the old fighting-ship 
awoke and looked on. A coastal motor-boat had vis- 
ited her and hung a flare in her slack and rusty rig- 
ging; and that eye of unsteady fire, paling in the blaze 
of the star-shells or reddening through the drift of 
the smoke, watched the whole great enterprise, from 
the moment when it hung in doubt to its ultimate 
triumphant success. 

The planning and execution of that success had 
been entrusted by the Vice- Admiral, Sir Roger Keyes, 
to Commodore Hubert Lynes, C.M.G., who directed 
thcprevious. attempt to block the harbour with Sirius 
and Brilliant. Upon that occasion, a combination of 
unforeseen, and unforeseeable, conditions had fought 
against him; upon this, the main problem was to se- 
cure the effect of a surprise attack upon an enemy 
who was clearly, from his ascertained dispositions, 
expecting him. Sirius and Brilliant had been baffled 
by the displacement of the Stroom Bank buoy, which 

55 



56 Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 

marks the channel to the harbour entrance, but since 
then aerial reconnaissance had established that the 
Germans had removed the buoy altogether and that 
there were nov/ no guiding marks of any kind. They 
had also cut gaps in the piers as a precaution against 
a landing; and, further, when towards midnight on 
Thursday the ships moved from their anchorage, it 
was known that some nine German destroyers were 
out and at large upon the coast. The solution of the 
problem is best indicated by the chronicle of the event. 

It was a night that promised well for the enterprise 
— nearly windless, and what little breeze stirred came 
from a point or so west of north; a sky of lead-blue, 
faintly star-dotted, and no moon; a still sea for the 
small craft, the motor launches and the coastal motor- 
boats, whose work is done close in shore. From the 
destroyer which served the Commodore for flagship, 
the remainder of the force was visible only as swift 
silhouettes of blackness, destroyers bulking like cruis- 
ers in the darkness, motor-launches like destroyers, 
and coastal motor-boats showing themselves as racing 
hillocks of foam. From Dunkirk, a sudden and brief 
flurry of gunfire announced that German aeroplanes 
were about — they were actually on their way to visit 
Calais; and over the invisible coast of Flanders the 
summer-lightning of the restless artillery rose and fell 
monotonously. 

"There's Vindictive!" The muffled seamen and 
Marines standing by the torpedo-tubes and the guns 
turned at that name to gaze at the great black ship, 
seen mistily through the streaming smoke from the 
destroyer's funnels, plodding silently to. her goal and 
her end. Photographs have made familiar that high- 




One of the Funnels of ti:e "Vindictive" 
After the Engagement. 




Official Sea-Plane Photograph of the Lock-Gates 

And the Approach to the Lock at Zcebrugge, shozving the Sunken 

Block-Ships. 



Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 57 

sided profile and the tall funnels, with their Zeebrugge 
scars, always with a background of the pier at Dover 
against which she lay to be fitted for her last task; 
now there was added to her the environment of the 
night and the sea and the greatness and tragedy of her 
mission. 

She receded into the night astern as the destroyer 
raced on to lay the light buoy that was to be her guide, 
and those on board saw her no more. She passed 
thence into the hands of the small craft, whose mis- 
sion it was to guide her, light her, and hide her in the 
clouds of the smoke-screen. 

There was no preliminary bombardment of the har- 
bour and the batteries as before the previous attempt; 
that was to be the first element in the surprise. A 
time-table had been laid down for every stage of the 
operation; and the stafif work beforehand had even 
included precise orders for the laying of the smoke 
barrage, with plans calculated for every direction of 
wind. The monitors, anchored in their firing-posi- 
tions far to seaward, awaited their signal; the great 
siege batteries of the Royal Marine Artillery in Flan- 
ders — among the largest guns that have ever been 
placed on land-mountings — stood by likewise to neu- 
tralise the big German artillery along the coast; and 
the airmen who were to collaborate with an aerial 
bombardment of the town waited somewhere in the 
darkness overhead. The destroyers patrolled to sea- 
ward of the small craft. 

The Vindictive, always at that solemn gait of hers, 
found the flagship's light-buoy and bore up for where 
a coastal motor-boat, commanded by Lieutenant Wil- 
liam R. Slayter, R.N., was waiting by a calcium flare 



58 Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 

upon the old position of the Stroom Bank buoy. Four 
minutes before she arrived there, and fifteen minutes 
only before she was due at the harbour mouth, the 
signal for the guns to open was given. Two motor- 
boats, under Lieutenant Barrel Reid, R.N.R., and 
Lieutenant Albert L. Poland, R.N., dashed in towards 
the ends of the high wooden piers and torpedoed them. 
There was a machine-gun on the end of the western 
pier, and that vanished in the roar and the leap of 
flame and debris which called to the guns. Over the 
town a flame suddenly appeared high in air, and sank 
slowly earthwards — the signal that the aeroplanes had 
seen and understood ; and almost coincident with their 
first bombs came the first shells whooping up from 
the monitors at sea. The surprise part of the attack 
was sprung. 

The surprise, despite the Germans' watchfulness, 
seems to have been complete. Up till the moment 
when the torpedoes of the motor-boats exploded, there 
had not been a shot from the land — only occasional 
routine star-shells. The motor-launches were doing 
their work magnificently. These pocket-warships, 
manned by officers and men of the Royal Naval Volun- 
teer Reserve, are specialists at smoke-production ; they 
built to either hand of the Vindictive' s course the like- 
ness of a dense sea-mist driving landward with the 
wind. The star-shells paled and were lost as they sank 
in it; the beams of the searchlights seemed to break 
off short upon its front. It blinded the observers of 
the great batteries when suddenly, upon the warning 
of the explosions, the guns roared into action. 

There was a while of tremendous uproar. The 
coast about Ostend is ponderously equipped with bat- 



Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 59 

teries, each with its name known and identified: Tir- 
pitz, Hindenburg, Deutschland, Cecilia, and the rest; 
they register from six inches up to monsters of fif- 
teen-inch naval pieces in land-turrets, and the Royal 
Marine Artillery fights a war-long duel with them. 
These now opened fire into the smoke and over it at 
the monitors; the Marines and the monitors replied; 
and, meanwhile, the aeroplanes were bombing method- 
ically and the anti-aircraft guns were searching the 
skies for them. Star-shells spouted up and floated 
down, lighting the smoke banks with spreading green 
fires; and those strings of luminous green balls, which 
airmen call ''flaming onions," soared up to lose them- 
selves in the clouds. Through all this stridency and 
blaze of conflict, the old Vindictive, still unhurrying, 
was walking the lighted waters towards the entrance. 

It was then that those on the destroyers became 
aware that what had seemed to be merely smoke was 
wet and cold, that the rigging was beginning to drip, 
that there were no longer any stars — a sea-fog had 
come on. 

The destroyers had to turn on their lights and use 
their syrens to keep in touch with each other ; the air 
attack was suspended, and Vindictive, with some dis- 
tance yet to go, found herself in gross darkness. 

There were motor-boats to either side of her, escort- 
ing her to the entrance, and these were supplied with 
what are called Dover flares — enormous lights capable 
of illuminating square miles of sea at once. A "Very" 
pistol was fired as a signal to light these ; but the fog 
and the smoke together were too dense for even the 
flares. Vindictive then put her helm over and started 
to cruise to find the entrance. Twice in her wander- 



60 Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 

ings she must have passed across it, and at her third 
turn, upon reaching the position at which she had first 
lost her way, there came a rift in the mist, and she saw 
the entrance clear, the piers to either side and the 
opening dead ahead. The inevitable motor-boat dashed 
up (No. 22, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Guy L. 
Cockburn, R.N.), raced on into the opening under a 
heavy and momentarily growing fire, and planted a 
flare on the water between the piers. Vindictive 
steamed over it and on. She was in. 

The guns found her at once. She was hit every few 
seconds after she entered, her scarred hull broken 
afresh in a score of places and her decks and upper 
works swept. The machine-gun on the end of the 
western pier had been put out of action by the motor- 
boat's torpedo, but from other machine-guns at the 
inshore ends of the pier, from a position on the front, 
and from machine-guns apparently firing over the 
eastern pier, there converged upon her a hail of lead. 
The after-control was demolished by a shell which 
killed all its occupants, including Sub-Lieutenant 
Angus H. MacLachlan, who was in command of it. 
Upper and lower bridges and chart-room were swept 
by bullets, and Commander Godsal, R.N., ordered his 
officers to go with him to the conning-tower. 

They observed through the observation slit in the 
steel wall of the conning-tower that the eastern pier 
was breached some two hundred yards from its sea- 
ward end, as though at some time a ship had been in 
collision with it. They saw the front of the town 
silhouetted again and again in the light of the guns 
that blazed at them; the night was a patchwork of fire 
and darkness. Immediately after passing the breach 



Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 61 

in the pier, Commander Godsal left the conning-tower 
and went out on deck, the better to watch the ship's 
movements; he chose his position, and called in 
through the slit of the conning-tower his order to star- 
board the helm. The Vindictive responded; she laid 
her battered nose to the eastern pier and prepared to 
swing her 320 feet of length across the channel. 

It was at that moment that a shell from the shore 
batteries struck the conning-tower. Lieutenant Sir 
John Alleyne and Lieutenant V. A. C. Crutchley, R.N., 
were still within ; Commander Godsal was close to the 
tower outside. Lieutenant Alleyne was stunned by the 
shock; Lieutenant Crutchley shouted through the slit 
to the Commander, and, receiving no answer, rang the 
port engine full speed astern to help in swinging the 
ship. By this time she was lying at an angle of about 
forty degrees to the pier, and seemed to be hard and 
fast, so that it was impossible to bring her further 
round. 

After working the engines for some minutes to no 
effect. Lieutenant Crutchley gave the order to clear the 
engine-room and abandon ship, according to the pro- 
gramme previously laid down. Engineer Lieutenant- 
Commander Wm. A. Bury, who was the last to leave 
the engine-room, blew the main charges by the switch 
installed aft; Lieutenant Crutchley blew the auxiliary 
charges in the forward six-inch magazine from the 
conning-tower. Those on board felt the old ship shrug 
as the explosive tore the bottom plates and the bulk- 
heads from her ; she sank about six feet and lay upon 
the bottom of the channel. Her work was done. 

It is to be presumed that Commander Godsal was 
killed by the shell which struck the conning-tower. 



62 Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 

Lieutenant Crutchley, searching the ship before he left 
her, failed to find his body, or that of Sub-Lieutenant 
MacLachlan, in that wilderness of splintered wood 
and shattered steel. In the previous attempt to block 
the port, Commander Godsal had commanded Bril- 
liant, and, together with all the officers of that ship 
and of Sirius, had volunteered at once for a further 
operation. 

Engineer Lieutenant-Commander Bury, who was 
severely wounded, had been in Vindictive in her attack 
on the Zeebrugge Mole ; he had urged upon the Vice- 
Admiral his claim to remain with her, with four En- 
gine-room Artificers, in view of his and their special 
knowledge of their engines. The names of these four 
are as follows: H. Cavanagh, H.M.S. Vindictive, 
wounded; N. Carroll, Royal Naval Barracks, Chat- 
ham, wounded; A. Thomas, H.M.S. Lion, missing; H. 
Harris, H.M.S. Royal Sovereign. 

The Coxswain was First-Class Petty Officer J. J. 
Reed, Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham, who had been 
with Commander Godsal in Brilliant, and whose ur- 
gent request to be allowed to remain with him had 
been granted. The remainder of the crew were se- 
lected from a large number of volunteers from the 
ships of the Dover patrol. 

Most of the casualties were incurred while the ship 
was being abandoned. The men behaved with just 
that cheery discipline and courage which distinguished 
them in the Zeebrugge raid. 

Petty Officer Reed found Lieutenant Alleyne in the 
conning tower, still unconscious, and carried him aft 
under a storm of fire from the machine-guns. Lieu- 
tenant Alleyne was badly hit before he could be got 



Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 63 

over the side, and fell into the water. Here he 
managed to catch hold of a boat-fall, and a motor- 
launch, under Lieutenant Bourke, R.N.V.R., suc- 
ceeded in rescuing him and two other wounded men. 

The remainder of the crew were taken off by Motor- 
Launch 254, under Lieutenant Geoffrey H. Drum- 
mond, R.N.V.R., under a fierce fire. When finally he 
reached the Warwick the launch was practically in a 
sinking condition; her bows were shot to pieces; I-*eu- 
tenant Drummond was himself severely wounded, 
his second in command. Lieutenant Gordon Ross, 
R.N.V.R., and one hand were killed; a number of 
others were wounded. The launch was found to be 
too damaged to tow, and day was breaking; she and 
the Warwick were in easy range of the forts; so as 
soon as her crew and the Vindictive's survivors were 
transferred, a demolition charge was placed in her 
engine-room and she was sunk. 

Always according to programme, the recall rockets 
for the small craft were fired from the flagship at 2.30 
a.m. The great red rockets whizzed up to lose them- 
selves in the fog; they cannot have been visible half 
a mile away ; but the work was done, and one by one 
the launches and motor-boats commenced to appear 
from the fog, stopped their engines alongside the de- 
stroyers and exchanged news with them. There were 
wounded men to be transferred and dead men to be re- 
ported — their names called briefly across the water 
from the little swaying deck to the crowded rail above. 
But no one had seen a single enemy craft; the nine 
German destroyers who were out and free to fight 
had chosen the discreeter part. 

Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes was present at the 
operation in the destroyer Warwick. Commander 



M Ostend — Second Attack: Official Narrative 

Hamilton Benn, R.N.V.R., D.S.O., M.P., was in com- 
mand of the motor-launches, and Lieutenant Francis 
C. Harrison, D.S.O., R.N., of the coastal motor-boats. 
The central smoke-screen was entrusted to Sub-Lieu- 
tenant Humphrey V. Low, R.N., and Sub-Lieutenant 
Leslie R. Blake, R.N.R. Casualties, as at present re- 
ported, stand at two officers killed and six men ; two 
officers and ten men, all of Vindictive, missing, be- 
lieved killed ; and four officers and eight men wounded. 
It is not claimed by the officers who carried out the 
operation that Ostend Harbour is completely blocked; 
but its purpose — to embarrass the enemy and make the 
harbour impracticable to any but small craft and 
dredging operations difficult — has been fully accom- 
pHshed. 



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Biographical Introduction by Miss E. M. Smith-Dampier 

A glowing book, filled with a deep love of Ireland, by one of the most 

attractive British figures of the war. 12mo. Net, $1.25 

WOUNDED AND A PRISONER OF WAR By an Exchanged Officer 

The high literary merit, studious moderation and charming personality 
of the author make this thrilling book "the most damning indictment of 
Germany's inhumanity that has yet appeared." 12mo. Net, $1.25 

THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM By L. Mokveld 

"Some of the most brilliant reporting of all times was done by a few 
quiet individuals. Among the men who did the most brilliant work, 
Mokveld, of the Amsterdam Tijd, stands foremost."— Dr. Willem Hen- 
drik Van Loon. Net, $1.00 

MY HOME IN THE FIELD OF MERCY By Frances Wilson Huard 
MY HOME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR By Frances WUsonHua^ 
The simple, intimate, classic narrative which has taken rank as one>^f 
the few distinguished books produced since the outbreak of the war. 

Illustrated. Each 12mo. Net, $1.35 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Publishers New York 

PUBLISHERS IN AMERICA FOR HODDER 8C STOUGHTON 



